Author: Keramet Reiter File Type: pdf How Americas prisons turned a brutal and inhumane practice into standard procedure Originally meant to be brief and exceptional, solitary confinement in U.S. prisons has become long-term and common. Prisoners spend twenty-three hours a day in featureless cells, with no visitors or human contact for years on end, and they are held entirely at administrators discretion. Keramet Reiter tells the history of one supermax, Californias Pelican Bay State Prison, whose extreme conditions recently sparked a statewide hunger strike by 30,000 prisoners. This book describes how Pelican Bay was created without legislative oversight, in fearful response to 1970s radicals how easily prisoners slip into solitary and the mental havoc and social costs of years and decades in isolation. The product of fifteen years of research in and about prisons, this book provides essential background to a subject now drawing national attention.**Review237 tells a compelling story of the banality of evil in correctional planning and penal confinement.Franklin E. Zimring, University of California, Berkeley(Frank Zimring) Engaging, meticulously researched, and deeply disturbing, 237 is more than a history of Pelican Bay Prison. Keramet Reiter opens a window onto the secretive decisions that produced the contemporary supermax and sensitively explores the harmful results. This remarkable book is essential reading for anyone concerned about prisons in the United States.Lorna A. Rhodes, author ofTotal Confinement Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison(Lorna A. Rhodes) Keramet Reiter uncovers the history and consequences of Californias unfortunate modern experiment with solitary confinementa tale of public policy gone awry through ignorance, callousness, cruelty and self interest, inflicting untold psychological pain and emotional miseryon thousands.Jamie Fellner, Human Rights Watch(Jamie Fellner) 237is a convincing, heartbreaking, enraging explanation of how prison bureaucrats, empowered by a fearful electorate, gained the power to entomb human beings for five, ten, twenty years and more in small boxes without windows where the lights are never turned off. I have not read a book in recent years that has made me angrier than this or explained more about how, when it comes to prisons, Americans have dug ourselves such a very deep hole.Ted Conover, author ofNewjack Guarding Sing Sing(Ted Conover) A chilling portrait of Americas securest and most punitive prisons. . . . [Reiters] stories of the psychological impact of isolationand the experiences of released Supermax prisonersare both disturbing and moving. Essential reading in the ongoing national re-examination of mass incarceration.Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review(Kirkus Reviews) Keramet Reiter has uncovered what should be a national scandal . . . She does an excellent job of putting the story of Pelican Bay into the larger context of the rise of supermax prisons nationally . . . [and] gives life to those directly impacted by solitary confinement. . . . An important contribution.Allan Mills, Truthout(Allan Mills Truthout) Excellent . . . A first-rate examination of the rise of supermaxes.New York Journal of Books(New York Journal of Books) About the Author Keramet Reiter, an assistant professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and at the School of Law at the University of California, Irvine, has been an associate at Human Rights Watch and testified about the impacts of solitary confinement before state and federal legislators. She lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Author: Edward Alexander File Type: pdf Before 1967, Israel had the overwhelming support of world opinion. So long as Israels existence was in harmony with politically correct assumptions, it was supported, or at least accepted, by the majority of progressive Jews, especially in the wake of the Holocaust. This is no longer the case. The Jewish Divide Over Israel explains the role played by prominent Jews in turning Israel into an isolated pariah nation. After their catastrophic defeat in 1967, Arabs overcame inferiority on the battlefield with superiority in the war of ideas. Their propaganda stopped trumpeting their desire to eradicate Israel. Instead, in a calculated appeal to liberals and radicals, they redefined their war of aggression against the Jews as a struggle for the liberation of Palestinian Arabs. The tenacity of Arabs rejection of Israel and their relentless campaign--in schools, universities, churches, professional organizations, and, above all, the news media--to destroy Israels moral image had the desired impact. Many Jewish liberals became desperate to escape from the shadow of Israels alleged misdeeds and found a way to do so by joining other members of the left in blaming Israeli sins for Arab violence. Today, Jewish liberals rationalize violence against the innocent as resistance to the oppressor, excuse Arab extremism as the frustration of a wronged party, and redefine eliminationist rhetoric and physical assaults on Jews as criticism of Israeli policy. Israels Jewish accusers have played a crucial and disproportionate role in the current upsurge of antisemitism precisely because they speak as Jews. The essays in this book seek to understand and throw back the assault on Israel led by such Jewish liberals and radicals as Tony Judt, Noam Chomsky, George Steiner, Daniel Boyarin, Marc Ellis, Israel Shahak, and many others. Its writers demonstrate that the foundation of the state of Israel, far from being the primal sin alleged by its accusers, was one of the few redeeming events in a century of blood and shame.

Author: Deborah Spungen File Type: epub For most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.Honest and moving...Her painful tale is engrossing.WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLDFrom the Paperback edition.From the Inside FlapFor most of us, it was just another horrible headline. But for Deborah Spungen, the mother of Nancy, who was stabbed to death at the Chelsea Hotel, it was both a relief and a tragedy. Here is the incredible story of an infant who never stopped screaming, a toddler who attacked people, a teenager addicted to drugs, violence, and easy sex, a daughter completely out of control--who almost destroyed her parents marriage and the happiness of the rest of her family.Honest and moving...Her painful tale is engrossing.WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLDFrom the Paperback edition.

Author: L. Ron Hubbard File Type: pdf Scientology The Fundamentals of ThoughtDesignated by L. Ron Hubbard as the Book One of Scientology. After having fully unified and codified the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology came the refinement of their fundamentals. Originally published as a resume of Scientology for use in translations into non-English tongues, this book is of inestimable value to both the beginner and advanced student of the mind, spirit and life. Equipped with this book alone, one can begin a practice and perform seeming miracle changes in the states of well-being, ability and intelligence of people.Contained within are the Conditions of Existence, Eight Dynamics, ARC Triangle, Parts of Man, the full analysis of Life as a Game, and more, including exact processes for individual application of these principles in processing. Here, then, in one book, is the starting point for bringing Scientology to people everywhere.About the AuthorL. Ron HubbardThere are only two tests of a life well lived L.Ron Hubbard once remarked Did one do as one intended? And were people glad one lived? In testament to the first stands the full body of his lifes work, including some 12,000 writings and 3,000 tape-recorded lectures of Dianetics and Scientology. In evidence of the second are the hundreds of millions of individuals whose lives have been demonstrably bettered because he lived. They are the more than 28 million students now reading superlatively owing to L. Ron Hubbards educational discoveries they are the millions of men and women freed from substance abuse through L.Ron Hubbards breakthroughs in drug rehabilitation they are the near 100 million who have been touched by his nonreligious moral code and they are the many millions more who hold his work to be the spiritual cornerstone of their lives.Although best known for Dianetics and Scientology, L.Ron Hubbard cannot be so simply categorized. If nothing else, his life was too varied, his influence too broad. There are tribesmen in Southern Africa, for example, who know nothing of Dianetics and Scientology, but they know L. Ron Hubbard the educator. Likewise, there are factory workers in Albania who know him only for his administrative discoveries children in China who know him only as the author of their moral code, and readers in dozens of languages who know him only for his novels. So, no, L.Ron Hubbard is not an easy man to categorize and certainly does not fit popular misconceptions of religious founder as an aloof and contemplative figure. Yet the more one comes to know this man and his achievements, the more one comes to realize he was precisely the sort of person to have brought us Scientology, the only major religion to have been founded in the twentieth century.What Scientology offers is likewise what one would expect of a man such as L.Ron Hubbard. For not only does it provide a fully unique approach to our most fundamental questionsWho are we? From where did we come and what is our destiny? But it further provides an equally unique technology for greater spiritual awareness. So how would we expect to characterize the founder of such a religion? Clearly, he would have to be larger than life, attracted to people, liked by people, dynamic, charismatic and immensely capable in a dozen fieldsall exactly L.Ron Hubbard.The fact is, if Mr. Hubbard had stopped after only one of his many accomplishments he would still be celebrated today. For example, with 46 million works of fiction in circulation, including such monumental bestsellers as Battlefield Earth, Fear and the Mission Earth series, Mr. Hubbard is unquestionably one of the most acclaimed and widely read authors of all time. His novels have earned some of the worlds most prestigious literary awards, and he has very genuinely been described as one of the most prolific and influential writers of the twentieth century.His earlier accomplishments are similarly impressive. As a barnstorming aviator through the 1930s he was known as Flash and broke local records for sustained glider flight. As a leader of expeditions, he is credited with conducting the first complete Puerto Rican mineralogical survey under United States protectorship and his navigational annotations still influence the maritime guides for British Columbia. His experimentation with early radio direction finding further became the basis for the Long Range Navigational system (Loran). And, as a lifelong photographer, his works have been displayed in galleries on two continents, with the definitive body of his photographs in traveling and permanent exhibits still drawing tens of thousands every year.Among other avenues of research, Mr. Hubbard developed and codified an administrative technology that is utilized by more than 200,000 organizations worldwide, including multinational corporations, charitable bodies, political parties, schools, youth clubs and every imaginable small business. Likewise Mr. Hubbards internationally acclaimed educational methods are utilized by more than a hundred thousand educators, while his equally acclaimed drug rehabilitation program has proven at least five times more effective than similarly aimed programs.Yet, however impressive these figures, no measure of L.Ron Hubbard is complete without some appreciation of what became his lifes work Dianetics and Scientology. The worlds most effective force for positive change, the Church of Scientology represents spiritual freedom for millions of people the world over. They come from every walk of life, every culture and every strata of society. Moreover, when one is speaking of L.Ron Hubbards discoveries relating to the human mind and spirit, one is ultimately speaking of the philosophic foundation of all he accomplished better education, crime-free cities, drug-free campuses, stable and ethical organizations and cultural revitalization through the artsall this and more is made possible because of the breakthroughs in Dianetics and Scientology.